A Pleasant Meal
by xandaalves
Summary: Mayor Mills is invited for dinner at David and Kathryn's house. What Mr. Nolan doesn't know is what she intends to do during her time in the their company.


_The Nolan Household; evening. _

Kathryn was atwitter. She wouldn't stop rushing from the dinner table to the kitchen, muttering one thousand things that he couldn't make sense of. David simply stood in between the two rooms, following his wife's eager steps with his steady blue eyes.

"Dear, do you want me to help-" The man could barely finish his thought, for the blonde woman would cut right in the middle of it.

"No, David. Absolutely not. You can't cook. At all."

David furrowed his brows together in disbelief. "Can't I now?" There was a hint of anger in his tone. He hated when she did this. Telling him things he couldn't do like she knew so much more than him. If he wanted to cook, he damn well would. But instead, he bottled those feelings on the dark corner of his mind, only for the sake of creating a nice atmosphere. She glanced at him, but her husband wasn't willing to share the look. "Fine, then. I will stay out of your way." He averted anymore of Mrs. Nolan's looks by sliding into the kitchen and occupying himself with fishing out china to arrange over the dinner table.

There was a light pout over his lips, showing the clear discontent he felt. David breathed heavily as he placed the fancy china on the table. "If you gave me a chance to cook, maybe you'd know." He muttered almost inaudibly to himself. He needed to give his thoughts a voice, even if they wouldn't be heard by anyone besides himself.

"There." He exclaimed after setting the last plate on the table.

"What time did Regina say she would be here?" His wife cried from the other room.

David rubbed his eyes and face before answering. "I don't know."

The blonde woman's figure popped on his sight again, looking rather annoyed. "She didn't tell you?"

David shrugged. "She said this evening. She should be here at any minute now."

Kathryn nodded, and shifted the blank glance she had on nowhere in particular back to her husband. "Honey, could you please change into something more presentable? There are other things beside plaid shirts among your clothes, you know?" She offered him a kind smile after the statement. He inhaled deeply and shot her a nod, letting his steps lead him upstairs and to their room.

David grabbed the first plain buttoned shirt he spotted and quickly put it on. He took a step towards the door, but realized he wasn't ready to face his wife again quite yet. Instead, the man let himself fall on the edge of the bed, staring blanky at his reflection in the mirror on the wall. The frustration in his eyes was so obvious, he couldn't believe Kathryn didn't mention anything. He was a fish out of water. Nothing around him seemed real, and his past life… that was a nightmare. Putting up a cheerful face everyday took a lot in him, and David longed for his alone moments. "What am I doing?" He asked his reflection, almost expecting an answer, but all he heard was Kathryn's voice following the roar of a car engine that had just parked outside the Nolan household.

"Dave, get down! Regina's here!" He sighed heavily, getting up on his feet and making his way downstairs to greet the visitor.

The mayor entered the Nolan household when Kathryn opened the door. She gave her blonde friend a hug, followed by a polite observation. "Hope I'm not late."

As David walked down the stairs, he focused all of his energy on putting up a cheerful face like the good host and husband he was expected to be. By the time he walked over the last step, the man had a perfectly polite smile over his lips.

Regina shifted her attention to the man walking down the stairs, and arched her brows, looking overly impressed. "Well, hello David. I must say you're looking quite handsome tonight." She shot the wife a conspiratorial look. "You trained him well." A rather mischievous laugh escaped her lips, followed by Kathryn.

"Hello, Regina. Thank you very much. You don't look half bad yourself." He tried to conceal his discomfort at the way the mayor talked like he was some sort of puppy by following both women with a dry laugh, obviously not as amused as the duo.

"Oh, I almost forgot." The brunette said, offering Kathryn the green bottle she had in hands. "Here is my famous apple cider."

Kathryn was showing utter excitment, and shot him a suggestive look when she grabbed the bottle of apple cider. David nodded while a forced smile danced on his lips. "That's very kind of you, Regina." His wife handed him the bottle as she claimed that they would be drinking it tonight.

All Mr. Nolan did was stand and look pretty while the two talked. As if he would have a chance to let out a complete sentence in the presence of the mayor. Kathryn was the master of cutting in. She meant no harm, though. The woman was simply excited.

"I'll open up this bad boy and be with you two in a second." He said indicating the bottle of cider in his hands.

David headed to the kitchen by himself and set the bottle down over the counter while looking for an opener, which he found in a matter of seconds. Before opening the drink, he examined it carefully. There was a strange sensation coming to him, another one of those feelings he couldn't put his finger on. Being without memories for such a significant amount of time made him trust his gut above anything else. It taught him that your brain plays tricks on you, so he listened to his heart. _I'm not drinking that_. He told himself, fetching a bottle of water from the fridge before heading back to the dining room with one bottle in each hand.

"I'm going to pass on the cider tonight, hope you don't mind." He told Regina as he poured the drink she brought inside hers and Kathryn's glasses. "I'm feeling a bit sick today." He said as genuinely as he could, satisfied with the result. And hopefully that excuse would be of use later on at dessert. David wasn't the only Nolan that couldn't cook at all.

He occupied a seat at the edge of the table, in between the two as his wife talked to the mayor. "It was very nice of you to join us this evening. You'll get to taste a killing apple pie."

David couldn't help but letting an amused smirk make its way across his lips over the irony of that sentence.


End file.
